The present invention relates to a method and a device for operating an at least semi-active chassis of a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
With increasing wealth and higher living standards comes on one hand a demand for comfort and on the other hand an increased desire for protection and safety. In the context of motor vehicles, these desires have strongly influenced motor vehicle development, in particular the field of chassis and vehicle control systems. The goal of active chassis and the associated vehicle control systems is to increase agility, driving dynamic, comfort and safety compared to passive chassis.
Measuring a height profile of a road ahead of the vehicle via a vehicle sensor system and transmitting the height profile to a chassis control enables better control strategies to increase comfort, driving safety and driving dynamic, and to lower energy consumption.
From the state-of-the-art a forward-looking chassis is generally known which includes a sensor for recognizing a height profile of a road ahead of the vehicle, and active elements, which can be adjusted to the height profile to thereby increase driving comfort.
However, none of the prior art publications discloses how precisely to drive over an obstacle such as a pothole by controlling the vehicle, for example by lifting the wheels. This means, that to date a concrete and fast control of an actuating system that is present in the motor vehicle and is responsible for the driving behavior to further increase driving comfort and driving dynamic, is not known.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide a possibility to control an actuating system in the chassis so that even before driving over an obstacle this obstacle is recognized and appropriate measures are taken in response prior to reaching this obstacle.